As the Annecy Festival celebrates animation from Mexico this week, London-based sales agency WestEnd Films has announced that it has partnered with Lupus Films on their forthcoming hand-drawn animated feature about the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, Las Dos Fridas.
Written and directed by BAFTA Award-winning writer and director Paloma Baeza (Poles Apart, The House), herself of Mexican descent, Las Dos Fridas will explore the reasons why Kahlo still captivates 65 years after her death:
With a visual style inspired by the artist’s paintings and illustrations, Las Dos Fridas will form a rich canvas of a life filled with laughter, romance and pain as it focuses on the key moments which changed Kahlo’s life — from the motor accident that permanently disabled her and led her to paint, to her tumultuous love affairs with life partner and soul mate, Diego Rivera, and photographer Nickolas Muray.
Combined with a dramatized depiction of Kahlo’s vivid imagination and entering the surreal worlds of some of her most famous works, the film will paint a searingly intimate and beautiful portrait of this multi-faceted icon.
The film is helmed by an all-female team which includes Baeza, producers Camilla Deakin and Ruth Fielding of Lupus Films (Kensuke’s Kingdom, Ethel & Ernest, The Tiger Who Came to Tea) and award-winning art director Sharon Liu (The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Nina Simone: Color Is a Wonderful Thing).
WestEnd Films will sell the film under its WeLove label, launched to promote female talent and bring female driven content to serve audiences across all genres.
“We are delighted to be working with the talented team at Lupus Films, we have long admired their imaginative and moving adult animations,” said Maya Amsellem, Co-Founder of WestEnd Films. “Paloma is a real talent and together they are the perfect team to paint a picture of this inspirational icon of female creativity, the film will be as raw and honest as Frida’s own biographical paintings.”
Lupus Films Co-Founder Deakin agreed, “We are really excited to have WestEnd Films aboard this very special project. Like us, they are a female owned and led company and their reputation of working with female talent across an incredibly diverse set of feature films speaks for itself. We are thrilled that they are as excited by the creative potential of Las Dos Fridas as we are.”
Las Dos Fridas has been developed with the assistance of the BFI (British Film Institute).
